HealthCare.gov seeing more action this fall

Four weeks into the open enrollment for 2018, the number of health insurance plans selected through HealthCare.gov is up by 30% over the first 4 weeks of the 2017 sign-up period, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

From Nov. 1 to Nov. 25 of this year, 2.78 million plans for 2018 were selected on the 39 state marketplaces that use the HealthCare.gov platform, the CMS reported Nov. 29, compared with the 2.14 million plans for 2017 selected from Nov. 1 to Nov. 26 of last year.

Last year, the enrollment numbers were released only every 2 weeks, so direct week-to-week comparisons are not possible. Looking at 2-week periods, however, shows that, despite a drop in the number of selections from the first to the second biweekly period this year, weeks 3 and 4 were still up considerably over last year.

“The final number of plan selections associated with enrollment activity during a reporting period may change due to plan modifications or cancellations,” the CMS noted. Also, “the weekly snapshot only reports new plan selections and active plan renewals and does not report the number of consumers who have paid premiums to effectuate their enrollment.”